Pokémon Obsidian | An Orre Fanfiction

Chapter 24: Not Safe

While the young Trainers landed at the resort in the dead of night, Jovi was still awake. Lumir squinted over her shoulder at the screen. Hop fell asleep on the desk. It was understandable. They barely slept since Jovi returned with Seth and his Celebi. Simulations of most Pokémon and their behaviours were available online, but only the Pokémon HQ Lab had the data required to simulate Shadow Pokémon. That ability was too dangerous in the hands of others. It took a while to apply and fine-tune every part of the Shadow Pokémon simulation to fit Celebi.

All three professors still struggled to get their heads around the potential time travel. The program was supported by multiple hard drives and laptops, but it still crashed every time the Shadow Celebi crossed from the present to the future.

'I could really do with a physicist right now...'

'Should I call Kazuki, Professor?'

Hop stirred. 'Not sure physics can even explain this...'

'Maybe it is beyond our understanding... but also simpler than we think...'

Jovi stood. She returned from her room with one of her oldest books: Pokémon of the Forest by Professor Redwood. Michael bought it for her the day she decided to become a professor. Professor Redwood did write books for professional scientists, but he also wrote books aimed at curious young Trainers. That was one of them.

'Instead of diving right in to the complex physics of something we can't even pinpoint yet... if we go back to the beginning of what we know about Celebi...'

She leafed straight through to one of the last pages, marked by a faded post-it note that was 10 years older than Lumir.

'Now, this isn't simple – because I don't know if Kazuki could explain it, but my pretty good knowledge of physics can't – but the concept is. Celebi can "exist simultaneously across time." That eliminates the grandfather paradox. It eliminates every paradox. Assuming GoD has total control over his XD008, if he's time travelling as one with Celebi, he can presumably exist simultaneously across time, too.'

'So basically,' Hop said, 'If he killed his grandpa, he'd still exist because... he exists in both places. He could kill himself and still exist. But doesn't that require two timelines? Or universes? That's dodgy, innit?'

Lumir frowned. 'I'm not sure it necessarily does. Celebi doesn't have the power to traverse space in the sense of universes. Only time.'

'Space can be traversed by damaging time. Which I'm sure is a risk when you're time travelling via Shadow Pokémon. Kind of hoping this GoD accidentally drops himself in an Ultra Wormhole and falls out 10 billion light years from here.'

Jovi smiled wearily. 'I'm sure he's done a risk assessment. Whatever the scientific explanation for it is... I'm positive that time travel, using XD008, is responsible for those flashes and the déjà vu reports. And there's so much left to learn about Pokémon, let alone Celebi – I don't think we can say for sure that just because we call Celebi's power "time travel," it doesn't use space to do it.'

'Space must be involved, I reckon, for so many people – basically everyone in Orre – to experience déjà vu all at once. Could this GoD seem familiar because he's someone from before? From the past? Like 16 year-old Ardos or Evice?'

Lumir uncomfortably picked at the sleeves of his lab coat. Existing as the son of Ardos, no matter how much he hated his father, never got any easier.

'I doubt it. They say GoD uses Galarian slang. My father's first visit to Galar was a visit to the Shadow Pokémon factory there, about 50 years ago.'